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Armarium Brings Vintage and Secondhand Styles to South Grand

South Grand Boulevard's music venues, bars and eclectic restaurants have long made it a destination for showing off your coolest threads. And now, there's another spot in the neighborhood to actually get said threads, without breaking the bank.

Armarium is a vintage and secondhand boutique at the corner of South Grand and Wyoming. (The word is Latin for closet, in case you were wondering.) The owner, Robin Schubert, has a pretty good bead on South Grand style, since she's owned the nearby bar Absoluti Goosed with her partner for the past five years.

"People in this area are very cost-savvy, but they're very particular about what they wear," she tells the Daily RFT. "Used clothing is a great fit. It's what you would hope to find in a thrift store without all the digging."

The
shop features a well-curated collection of casual and upscale
second-hand clothes and shoes for ladies and fellas, as well as jewelry
and locally-made goodies like soy candles from Smelly Things and and body scrub and butter from Scrucious.

The
stuff is mostly newer than what could properly be called vintage: Steve
Madden and Bitten shoes, coats from Express and Banana Republic. But
it's all in great condition, and Shubert's aesthetic
is in clear evidence. Prices are reasonable: Most of the shoes hover around $12,
and the coats are in the $20 neighborhood. It's not as edgy as
the fetish-inspired gear up the street at the
ever-awesome Cheap TRX, but that makes it perhaps a little more
wearable.

"I try to keep a broad range in," Schubert says, "from
what you might see inspired by the runways, and I try to keep a good
pair of jeans and a rock tee in."

Stop on in: the store's open
every day except Monday at 3206 South Grand. Schubert's hoping to implement
a buy/sell/trade model soon, but at the moment it's strictly sales
anytime and trade by appointment. She's also hoping to collaborate with
the LGBT Community Center of Metropolitan St. Louis on a thrift shop benefiting the center.